2024 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Solidarity hubs as social infrastructure: A comparative approach to voluntary services for transient foreign workers in East Asian City-regions
| Project/Area Number |
22K01047
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
コルナトウスキ ヒェラルド 九州大学, 比較社会文化研究院, 准教授 (00614835)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2022-04-01 – 2026-03-31
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| Keywords | solidarity hubs / migration / voluntary sector / East Asia / urban geography |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Being the main organizer of the 11th EARCAG conference in Fukuoka, I have tentatively discussed my research results by means of co-organizing a special session on "Current Geographies of Asian Migration: Politics, Solidarities, and Struggles of People and Places in Transition". We focused on Asian migration regimes in terms of the highly transient nature of employment contracts the role of the state engaging in both exclusionary and inclusionary policies. In line with the overall objective of this research projects, we highlighted place-based strategies devised by migrants and voluntary sector agencies to secure housing, find and change jobs, access health and other services, and how such strategies relate to notions of territorial justice in general and solidarity hubs in particular.
I have also published my results in two book chapters and at several international and domestic conferences. In these achievements I have mainly discussed the organizational mechanisms of solidarity hubs at play in the geographical contexts of Fukuoka's and Yokohama's inner city. As such, these results are also attempts to contribute to the urban theory of both cities as they are comparatively understudied in the Japanese context.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
While able to continue fieldwork in Fukuoka, Yokohama, and Osaka, my task as main organizer of the 2025 EARCAG conference has prevented me to conclude my fieldwork study on the Singaporean case, which I will conduct in the FY 2025.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Building further on the fieldwork I conducted in FY 2023, I will conclude my survey on the Singaporean solidarity hubs. The main point of analysis will be on the recent emergence of solidarity networks that cater for foreign workers outside the established volunteer sector geographies of Little India and Geylang. Besides this survey, I will continue my fieldwork on the Japanese cases, as the content of services continue to be updated according to the changing needs of foreign populations, something this research has also investigated through previous questionnaire surveys. The final results will be submitted to international journals.
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| Causes of Carryover |
As mentioned in more detail in the section of research progress, I was not able to conclude my fieldwork in Singapore. The incurring amount will be used for a one-time field survey in the next fiscal year.
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